Simon and Garfunkel

The real news on this reissue of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel’s classic 1970 album is the accompanying DVD. It features Songs of America, a 1969 CBS special directed by Charles Grodin. Rejected by its initial sponsor, Bell Atlantic, the controversial 52-minute film juxtaposed the pair touring, performing, rehearsing and recording with a series of politically charged images – including JFK, MLK, César Chávez and the Poor People’s March on Washington. The DVD’s other half, ‘The Harmony Game,’ examines Bridge’s creation via contemporary interviews with Simon, Garfunkel and co-producer Roy Hallee. ‘They’re just too simple,” Simon says of the lyrics to ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water,’ “and of course that’s what made it so universal.”